Study pneumonia more effectively with vaccines instead of antibiotics

Treat bacterial pneumonia with vaccines instead of antibiotics

The pneumonia has long been one of the common diseases. According to experts, more people are hospitalized each year with this diagnosis than after a heart attack or stroke. Bacterial pneumonia is primarily treated with antibiotics. But treatment with vaccines would bring benefits, according to researchers.

Two children die each year from pneumonia

According to health experts, about 800,000 people in Germany annually contract pneumonia. The dangerous disease can be fatal. The number of deaths from pneumonia in Germany is estimated at about 35,000 per year. In Germany, especially the elderly are at risk, globally younger. For example, Save the Children recently reported that two children die of pneumonia per minute worldwide. And that although the dangerous infectious disease can often be treated well.

Bacterial pneumonia is usually treated with antibiotics. But treatment with vaccines would bring benefits, according to researchers. (Image: tibanna79 / fotolia.com)

Treatment mostly with antibiotics

Bacterial pneumonia in Germany is first and foremost treated with antibiotics. If there is no improvement within 24 hours of taking the preparation, the patient will normally be prescribed other antibiotics.

But patients are not so well cared for in all regions of the world. There is also the problem of increasing antibiotic resistance.

The study by researchers from the University Children's Hospital Zurich and the University of Zurich (UZH) with an international team could be helpful here.

According to her, her work, the results of which were published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, forms the basis for the development of new vaccines. These would also counteract the increasing antibiotic resistance.

Infection with mycoplasma

Mycoplasmas are among the most common pathogens of bacterial pneumonia in children. The onset of the disease is still unclear.

Scientists at the University Children's Hospital Zurich and the UZH have now shown that specific immune cells, so-called B cells, are essential for curing the infection.

The antibodies they produce eliminate mycoplasma in the lungs. On the other hand, the bacteria in the nasopharynx remain for weeks.

The research team cultured the bacteria with a fluorescent substance and were able to visually trace the pathogens during the infection visually in the lungs and upper respiratory tract.

Results from the newly developed mouse model confirm clinical observations in children whose upper airways remained colonized following mycoplasma infection.

Different immune defense in the lungs and nasopharyngeal space

The team around the infectious scientist Patrick Meyer Sauteur shows that the immune system after the infection between the lungs and the upper airways is significantly different.

The researchers found in the lungs more so-called IgM and IgG antibodies as well as a significant increase and activation of B cells in the local lymph nodes - causing the pathogens were destroyed within weeks.

In contrast, they found in the upper airways IgA antibodies, no activation of B cells and, consequently, a persistence of the pathogen.

Finally, experiments with mice lacking B cells provided evidence that the antibodies transferred into the mice effectively destroyed the bacteria in the lungs, but these could not eliminate the pathogen in the upper respiratory tract.

B-cells play a key role

"These are the first data to prove that the antibody-mediated immune response is essential for lung infection with mycoplasma," Patrick Meyer Sauteur said in a statement.

The results could help to develop specific vaccines that would prepare the immune system for defense and prevent infection:

"Our work lays the foundation for the development of mycoplasma vaccines. This at a time when there is often no suitable antimicrobial against mycoplasma due to the proliferation of resistance in certain infantile regions of the world, "said Meyer Sauteur. (Ad)